CNN anchor Don Lemon says that if the University of Missouri students want a "safe space" they shouldn't leave home.

Appearing on "The Tom Joyner Morning Show" on Thursday, Lemon said college students "should not be coddled by retreating into so-called 'safe spaces' because they're afraid of having their feelings hurt. If you're afraid of having your feelings hurt, don't leave your house. College is the place where robust debate should be welcomed and vigorously explored."

Lemon was referring to students who successfully sought the ouster of the school's president Tim Wolfe on Monday. Some have been seen on video demanding media not enter the encampment so that it could remain a "safe space."

Lemon has expressed support for the students' concern over racial incidents at the school, but added, "the only issue I have with what happened at the University of Missouri is their vigorous effort to squash freedom of speech and freedom of the press. That is a very dangerous road that no one should want to go down."

Missouri has one of the most well-respected journalism programs in the country, he noted. "Students there should know that in America, a country with a free and open press, that it is dangerous to deny anyone that freedom. In fact, it's un-American."

Lemon said Malcolm X and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. weren't afraid of talking to people who disagreed with them.

"They weren't afraid of confrontation, of being challenged," he said. "They weren't afraid of being offended, they weren't afraid of offending. They knew the real meaning of freedom of the press, freedom of speech and expression."